Scarlett

“ If you go bail for Scarlett and he runs away, you’ll lose it. If he stands his trial, then you’ll get it all back and have the knowledge, I believe, that you helped an innocent man. Which will you do?”
“I couldn’t hesitate,” replied Rose. “I’m sure Mr. Scarlett wouldn’t commit such a dreadful crime as that he’s charged with. I—I—feel,” her breath caught in her throat, and she gave vent to something very like a sob, “I should be glad to do anything to get him out of prison.”
“Quite right, quite right!” thundered the old Pilot. “There speaks my gal, Sartoris; there speaks my dar’ter, Rosebud!” ”

“ The story was interesting if true, thought Scarlett; but the big man, for all that his eyes held at times an opal glow, appeared too frank and hearty for so grim a history. And later, the German innocently told a set of gross fictions, palpable Shanghai "bunders"; whereas the big man, when they reached Saigon, went out of his way to oblige Scarlett with some valuable information, and laughing all thanks jovially aside, disappeared down a wide and empty boulevard of red clay, into that artificial Paris of the Orient. ”

“ Then, in the midst of the wild excitement, as the moor seemed to quiver beneath their horses’ feet, there was a cheer, a clash of steel, and amidst shouts and the blaring of trumpets, the stronger prevailed over the weaker, and Scarlett found himself in the midst of a confused group of his men being driven back upon the main body higher and higher up the hill, till he reached the summit among a scattered party of his own side, through whose ranks the Puritans were riding furiously. ”

“ Tom, May, Clare, the older children, had never been known to hint at anything—hints were not at all in their line, and of imagination they had not, between them, enough to fill a silver thimble—they were good, sturdy, honest children, with healthy stomachs and an excellent determination to do exactly the things that their class and generation were bent upon doing. Mrs. Scarlett was fond of them, of course, and because she was a sentimental woman she was sometimes quite needlessly emotional about them, but John—no. John was of another world. ”

“ The scarecrows had risen respectfully to their feet, when suddenly the humour of the situation struck them, and they laughed in unison; and Amiria, shaking with merriment, collapsed upon the sofa, and hid her mirth in its cushions.
“Never mind,” said the skipper, “it’s not the clo’es that make the man. Thank God for that, Scarlett. Clo’es can’t make a man a bigger rogue than he is.” ”

“ Even John's father, Mr. Reginald Scarlett, a K.C., and a man of a most decisive and emphatic bearing, felt John's difference.
John's appearance was unengaging rather than handsome—a snub nose, grey eyes, rather large ears, a square, stocky body and short, stout legs. He was certainly the most independent small boy in England, and very obstinate; when any proposal that seemed on the face of it absurd was made to him, he shut up like a box. ”

“ And now, beginning to feel alarmed, Scarlett lowered himself down, and forced his way through the tangle of little shrubby boughs growing round him, to the dead trunk, and found himself within a breastwork of rotten bark as high as he could reach, and which crumbled away as he tried to get up, one great green mossy patch breaking down and covering him with damp, fungus-smelling touchwood.
“Fred! Where are you? Don’t be stupid, and play with a fellow. ”

“ Scarlett's stentorian voice roaring out: "Stop that firing," and then shouting something in Hindustani.
Before I realized what was the meaning of this Miss Borsen sprang to her feet and was out on the balcony in a moment, pulling the wretched servants and Zanzibaris away from the sand-bags and calling out: "Stop! stop!
"It's Mr. Scarlett and your men climbing over the loopholed wall," she cried. "They are crawling over the corner just below us." ”

“ Scarlett whispered through the screen: "For God's sake, sir, send him away; don't let him come near me."
So, as my head really was rather dizzy with my discovery, I sent him away, and back he went, never moving a muscle of his face to show that he was disappointed.
I certainly was disappointed; one doesn't meet such people every day, and I should have liked to find out whether his son was alive. One thing, only, I determined on—not to let Mr. Scarlett know that it was his caravan of rifles we had captured, because I knew this would only add to his fright and his fear of impending calamity. ”

“ Why do you look at me so sadly, Monsieur Scarlett? Truly, you must know that my life has been long enough to prove its uselessness.”
“It is not true!” I cried, stung by remorse for all I had said. “Such women as you are the hope of France! Such women as you are the hope of the world! Ah, that you should consider the bitterness and folly of such a man as I am—that you should consider and listen to the sorry wisdom of a homeless mountebank—a wandering fool—a preacher of empty platitudes, who has brought you to this with his cursed meddling!” ”

“ I would be nice to her, and try to get myself invited often to Dun Moat. I would wander in the garden, where I must be seen by the Scarletts, and, as their presence in the “suite of the garden court” was no secret from me, it seemed that there would be no indiscretion in visiting Lady Scarlett. Once in that wing, it would go hard if I didn't get a peep at all its occupants!
I knew that the Scarletts kept up communication with the outer world, so far as getting food was concerned, through the old servant woman, whose name was Hedwig Kram. ”

“ From above crumbled walls, and parching screens of jungle, the bronze face of the Dreamer smiled with downcast eyes, as though they too appeared in the illusion of Forms, along with so many past phantoms—war and worship, growth and decay, other lives and loves—so many eager shadows flitting imperious and futile across this solitude.
"Aren't we wandering rather far?" asked Laura. It was not the subject uppermost in her mind.
"We're not lost," replied Scarlett. "This is the way we chased the coolie." ”

“ Chuck every interloper over the bank. I should do so myself. But don’t treat me so when I come with the nuggets.”
“Now, look ’ee here,” said the Pilot, as he rose cumbersomely, and took Scarlett by the arm. “I’ve said you’re in a bad streak o’ luck, and I believe it. But, mark me here: nothing would please me better than for you to return with a hatful of gold. All I say is, if you’re bent on going, be careful; and, being in a bad streak, don’t expect great things.”
“Good-bye,” said Scarlett. “I’m in a bad streak? All right. When I work out of that you’ll be the first man I’ll come to see.” ”

“ As I read, I remembered the gossip heard by my childish ears. "Bertie Scarlett," as Grandmother called him, was not only the wickedest, but the poorest peer in England according to her—too poor to live at Dun Moat, his place in Devonshire, my own county. The remedy was marriage—with an heiress. He tried America. Nothing doing. The girls he invited to become Lady Scarlett drew the line at anything beneath an earl. Or perhaps his reputation was against him. There were many people who knew he was unpopular at Court; unpopular being the mildest word possible. ”

“ As Lady Scarlett listened she knitted, with strong, predatory, relentless hands. Language, they say, is used to conceal thought. So, it occurred to me, is knitting. I felt, watching her as a wise mouse should watch a cat, that she was making up her mind to some action more beneficial to herself than to Terry. But for my life I couldn't guess what. She seemed to weave a knitted screen between my mind and hers!
In the end, however, she announced that for two hundred pounds a week her family could, apparently, blot itself temporarily out of existence, in the suite of the garden court. ”

“ Presently, as they lay behind their defences, each in his own rude shelter, Wat and Scarlett could see her crouch low in a little cuplike depression upon the height of a dune overlooking the track by which the enemy must come. The girl lay motionless, with her body flat to the ground, like a cat which makes ready for the pounce; and they could see the sun of the afternoon wink on the steel barrels of her pistols as on dewy holly leaves. ”

“ Scarlett, you are well-born and—you are here in the circus with the rest of us. You know what we are—you know that two or three of us have seen better days,... that something has gone wrong with us to bring us here,... but we never speak of it,... and never ask questions.... But I should like to tell you about myself;... you are a gentleman, you know,... and I was not born to anything in particular.... I was a clerk in the consul’s office in Paris when Monsieur Tissandier took a fancy to me, and I entered his balloon ateliers to learn to assist him. ”

“ Scarlett looked and shivered.
I saw that the cutter had taken the ground. Her bluejackets, with their rifles in their hands, were jumping into the water and wading ashore, racing ashore, my chum struggling to get ahead of them.
"Go it, Popple Opstein!" I yelled, unable to control myself, and wished that the old "B.A." would go faster, so that I could be alongside him.
My aunt! What luck! Two dhows in less than a fortnight!
"We shall be millionaires in no time," I said, turning to Mr. Scarlett, to cheer him up; but he had gone down on deck again.
Then I had to stop my engines. ”

“ From this time to the close of 1834 Scarlett ‘had a longer series of success than has ever fallen to the lot of any other man in the law’ (Memoir, p. 71) . The largest income which he ever made in one year at the bar appears to have been 18,500l., but this in later days has of course been frequently surpassed (Quarterly Review, cxliv. 15) . He purchased the seat and estate at Abinger in Surrey in 1813, and was called to the bench of the Inner Temple three years later.
Scarlett unsuccessfully contested the borough of Lewes as a whig candidate in October 1812, and again in March 1816. ”

“ On the evening of the same day, in the dining-room, a German antiquary going to Angkor looked up from his solitaire, caught Scarlett's eye across the table, and said guardedly:
"You are not a friendt to der larch man in der corner smoking, and who now hass gone top-side, no?" His glance took in the retreating figure of the man with the trimly parted beard. ”

“ Then, almost before Wat and Scarlett had time to draw their swords and stand on the defensive, they in their turn became the centre of all the noise in the village. Steel flashed in plenty all about, and half a score of wild men crouched and "hunkered" round them waiting for the chance to spring. But with Walter Gordon and Jack Scarlett standing back to back, each with a long sword in one hand and a pistol in the other, it was not easy for the most alert to find an unprotected opening. ”

“ Scarlett replied, in cold and feeble words for a heart aglow. Their faces might have shown how glad they were; and of this the girl was perhaps aware, for on a sudden she made the matter less personal, saying:
"It's good to see an American again, isn't it? You live out here in the East?"
"Not now, thank Heaven," said Owen. "Ship me somewhere west of Suez. I'm tired of it. I'm just going—" By a flash of genius he stopped before committing himself. "I'm just going about on a few errands, to and fro in the world. You're travelling, too, aren't you?" ”

“ Scarlett! Making love to my dar’ter, when I thought you was on your way to the diggings? Come, come; you’re losing your opportunities; you’re wasting time in gallivanting, when you might be growing rich. There’s great news abroad. They’ve issued a writ against that chap Tresco for the robbery of those mail-bags.”
“Tresco?” said Scarlett.
“Aye, Tresco the goldsmith. He’s wanted by the police.”
“Then I’m afraid they won’t find him,” said Jack. “He’s safe, I reckon.”
“Indeed. How do you know that?”
“He was in the bush with his prospector friend, when I left Bush Robin Creek. ”

“ I went on, "if you've hidden the poor drugged girl in that cubby-hole under the twisted chimney——"
The woman would have sprung at me if Scarlett had not grabbed her arm. My hand was on the tassel of the bell rope; and joy was in my heart, for at last I'd grabbed their best trump. If Bertie The Second was the Ace, the twisted chimney had supplied its Jack!
"Keep your head, Hilda," Scarlett warned his wife. "There's a vile plot against us. This—er—lady and her American partner have tricked us into letting Dun Moat, with the object of blackmail. ”

“ Jim Courtenaye was at the other end, talking from the abbey.
“Lord and Lady Scarlett are living at Dun Moat,” he said, “with their venomous little brute of a boy. They must be dashed hard up, because they have only one servant in their enormous house and not a single gardener on a place that needs a dozen. But it seems that Scarlett has refused several big offers both to sell and let. Heaven knows why! Perhaps the man's mad. Anyhow, that's all I have to tell at present. They say it's no good hoping he'll part. He sticks to the place closer than a leech. ”

“ Old Varnhagen’s dar’ter? ’Want to sell anything?”
Rose laughed. “Oh, no. She came, fishing.”
“Fishing?”
“Fishing for news. She’s very anxious to know how much gold Mr. Scarlett has got; in fact, she’s very anxious to know all about Mr. Scarlett.”
The old Pilot laughed, till the shingles of the roof were in danger of lifting. “The wimmen, oh! the wimmen!” he said. “They’re deep. There’s no sounding ’em. No lead’ll bottom them. You’ll have to protect that young man, my gal; protect him from scheming females. ”

“ But Wat had other things than Hollands in his mind—the distracting ripple of Kate's hair, and the way she had of holding the fingers of one hand on her side when she stood for a moment pensive.
He searched in his belt for a silver thaler, and gave it to Scarlett.
"Go drink, and meet me at the camp to-morrow," he said. Then he strode away towards the street of Zaandpoort, leaving his companion alternately looking at the broad unclipped silver piece in his hand, and staring after him in astonishment.
"The young fool is either mad or in love," confided Scarlett to the world at large ”